Elizabeth Futral, plays Desiree Armfeldt and Chad Shelton plays Frederick Egerman on A Little Night Music at Houston Grand Opera. The elegant operetta of romantic entanglements will be presented at The Cullen ... more

Elizabeth Futral, plays Desiree Armfeldt and Chad Shelton plays Frederick Egerman on A Little Night Music at Houston Grand Opera. The elegant operetta of romantic entanglements will be presented at The Cullen ... more

Elizabeth Futral, center, plays Desiree Armfeldt and Chad Shelton is Frederick Egerman on A Little Night Music at Houston Grand Opera. The elegant operetta of romantic entanglements will be presented at The ... more

In Time, T.E. Kalem deemed it "a jeweled music box of a show, lovely to look at, delightful to listen to."

The New Yorker's Brendan Gill observed, "it comes as close as possible to being the perfect romantic musical comedy."

That sums up "A Little Night Music," then and now. Indeed, given what has passed for musical theater in recent seasons, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's exquisitely crafted neo-operetta - with its entire score cleverly cast in 3/4 time, or multiples thereof - impresses more mightily than ever. Little wonder it swept the 1973 Tony Awards, winning six, including best musical, book and score.

Mizrahi not only designed the costumes and settings, but also made his directorial debut with that production. After all, a show regarded as the height of style and sophistication does seem a natural fit for a fashion legend.

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HGO will use the same Mizrahi costumes and sets, with director Matthew Ozawa (who was Mizrahi's assistant director) directing after Mizrahi's staging - with such changes as are deemed necessary to suit the different cast and stage configuration.

"This production honors the original's concept and intent more than others of recent years," Ozawa says. "The work holds up because the content of the story and score are so linked to what we as humans all go through - the yearning for some sort of cohesion and balance in our lives, the idea of finding love not necessarily where we'd expected to find it. These are things that everyone can relate to."

A Sondheim classic

Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film "Smiles of a Summer Night," and like it, set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, "A Little Night Music" portrays a tangle of mismatched lovers whose emotional confusion culminates in a weekend in the country. At the show's center is glamorous actress Desiree Armfeldt, striving to win back her former lover, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman, in an effort "to find some sort of coherent existence after so many years of muddle." Her quest is complicated by the fact widower Fredrik has re-married, to 18-year-old Anne - though their marriage remains unconsummated after nearly a year - and that Henrik, Fredrik's 19-year-old divinity-student son, is secretly in love with Anne. Further complicating affairs is Desiree's current lover, the jealous dragoon Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, who flaunts his infidelities before his long-suffering wife Countess Charlotte.

Desiree tries to set things right by inviting Fredrik and his family for a weekend at the country manse of her mother, Madame Armfeldt, a worldly former courtesan. Naturally, the uninvited Count and Countess crash the party, as well.

"A Little Night Music" was the third milestone musical composed by Sondheim and directed by Harold Prince in the early 1970s, following "Company" and "Follies." That triumvirate established Sondheim as the musical theater's leading composer and lyricist - and given such subsequent works as "Sweeney Todd," "Sunday in the Park With George," "Into the Woods" and "Passion," his pre-eminence remains unsurpassed.

"A Little Night Music" demonstrated a Sondheim show could be a commercial, as well as critical, success. It was the Sondheim work that finally won over critical hold-outs, such as Barnes - who, as then-critic for the all-powerful New York Times, had slammed both "Company" and "Follies," both otherwise widely recognized as landmarks of theatrical innovation.

Perhaps the secret of its success was that "A Little Night Music" offered familiar, audience-friendly elements while maintaining Sondheim's characteristic depth and sophistication.

"Smart as it is, it has heart, humor and pathos," Ozawa says. "Beyond great tunes and incredible dialogue, it's a heartfelt story that touches the human condition. We see each of the key characters on their journey, how they change, come to a realization about their true feelings. There's so much that makes them seem at once comic and tragic. And I think the advantage with our cast is that they are not only incredible singers, but also incredible actors, who maintain the human element in their portrayals."

"The whole 'stylish operetta' aspect is very much part of the show's appeal," says HGO assistant music director Eric Melear, who is conducting. "Sondheim's notion of making the entire score, in effect, a musical theme and variations - making it all multiples of waltz time - means that, even when it does not sound like a waltz, the show has that pulse sustaining it all evening."

Yet while "A Little Night Music" may be Sondheim's most overtly classical-sounding score, it keeps the traditional musical's balance of dialogue and song - rather than making the show 80 percent music with minimal dialogue, like "Sweeney Todd."

"When we look at works like 'Fledermaus' and 'Magic Flute,' we see that same balance," Melear says. "There's much more spoken word in those works than most people realize. Often, opera companies cut a good deal of dialogue. The thing about 'Night Music' is that the text moves at such a rapid pace, the whole show has this very quick pace."

Mizrahi's design for this production is influenced by Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." As Mizrahi explained in his program notes for the St. Louis production: "For years, I've wanted to present 'Night Music' like Shakespeare's summer farce, with music - the misguided lovers running through the forest on one enchanted summer night."

"Mizrahi makes the show's liebeslieder singers (the classical quintet that serves as a Greek chorus) into the fairies of Shakespeare's forest," Ozawa says. "They even have fairy wings. Here, they not only comment on the action, but seem to guide it."

Ozawa describes Mizrahi's costumes as "exquisite in every detail, from the materials used to the colors. There's lots of copper, gold, metallic tones - and extensive use of period undergarments. These characters always seem to be in the process of taking clothes off or putting them on. Yet they're not like costumes, they feel like clothing people would wear."

Rather than the sliding panels of birch trees in the Broadway original, Mizrahi's scenic production centers on three large, elaborate oak trees. Yet just as with the original production, the scenic choices suggest the surrealism of a René Magritte painting, with indoor events playing out amid the landscape.

"The show's world is one where the sun never sets, with a perpetual dawn-dusk feeling," Ozawa says. "Isaac has really set it in the forest, with singers actually planting flowers during 'A Weekend in the Country' - making the entire forest come to life on stage with vibrant colors. I think people will find this 'Night Music' beautiful and unlike anything they've seen before."